Authoritative and beautifully laid out, this is the most attractive, comprehensive and easily digestible history of the oldest railway system in the world -- Michael Palin A deliciously serendipitous, lavishly illustrated ride through two centuries of locomotion -- Max Hastings * The Sunday Times, Book of the Week * Completely masterful. A lifetime of railway love distilled into a most beautiful volume. This is the book that Bradley was born to write -- Lucy Worsley Enjoyable... It can be dipped into like a large box of chocolates, being written in short sections, each corresponding to a year in British railway history and with an accompanying illustration... Bradley has an eye for the beguiling fact... The illustrations are wittily chosen. * Financial Times * The perfect Christmas present for the family member interested in railways * Country Life * Very readable... should be made available to the Secretary of State for Transport. * The TLS * A superb history of what is the oldest railway system in the world. * Independent, Books of the Month * Bradley's Railway Guide comes intelligibly stuffed with facts and entertaining morsels at every station * The Oldie * A compendious and fascinating dive into 200 years of British railway history ... beautifully illustrated ... Bradley's achievement is to give thoughtful and often eye-opening context for every topic he examines * Englesberg Ideas * A wonderfully seductive plum pudding of a book: imaginatively capacious in its choice of episodes and themes, calmly authoritative in its judgements... Our railway history could not have been told more palatably or more nourishingly -- David Kynaston, author of A Northern Wind An intriguing and innovative approach to railway history, bringing to life many forgotten aspects of how the railways changed the world. From rails to racism, stamps to stations, even the most erudite rail enthusiast will find something new in this comprehensive history -- Christian Wolmar * British Rail: A New History * Marvellous * Church Times * The best history book of the year... the story of a truly remarkable British institution... a beautiful, must-have book. -- Paul Ross * Talk Radio * Filled with fine art and photography... Bradley is adept at reminding us of the wider cultural impact of railways * Simon Heffer, the Telegraph * A well put together and fascinatingly illustrated tome * Bookmunch * Praise for The Railways: Bradley's loving tribute to the golden age of the railway is a magnificent achievement ... A gorgeous Christmas pudding of a book ... So colourful, so rich and engaging, that even if you don't like railways you should love it -- Dominic Sandbrook * Sunday Times * A magnificent, all-encompassing history ... Both jaunty and scholarly - a rare combination - and packed with fascinating details right up to the present day -- Craig Brown * Daily Mail * Combining authority with intimacy, and technical grasp with humour and humanity, The Railways is by some distance the most ambitious and enriching book I have ever read on this subject ... A classic of British social history -- David Kynaston